If you needed yet another reason to drink beer, science just gave it to you. Researchers from the National University of Singapore (NUS) developed a new type of probiotic beer which could improve your immune system and neutralize pathogens and toxins.

The idea of developing a healthy, probiotic beer came from Alcine Chan Meizhi, a fourth-year student from the Food Science and Technology Program at the NUS Faculty of Science. Chan realized that while the market abounds with dairy-based probiotics, there’s another huge untapped market for probiotics: beer. Due to its nature, beer is a fertile ground for probiotics, and the craft beer phenomenon has been growing at a staggering rate in many parts of the world — so why not blend the two?

“The health benefits of probiotics are well-known. While good bacteria are often present in food that have been fermented, there are currently no beers in the market that contain probiotics. Developing sufficient counts of live probiotics in beer is a challenging feat as beers contain hop acids that prevent the growth and survival of probiotics,” said Chan, who graduates in July 2017.

Working with associate professor Liu Shaoquan, she used a strain of Lactobacillus paracasei called L26, which seems to be particularly promising.

The probiotic gives a strong taste with pleasant aromas, and the beer itself is quite light — with only 3.5 percent alcohol.

“For this beer, we used a lactic acid bacterium as a probiotic microorganism,” explains Chan, who developed the beer, in a statement.

“It will utilize sugars present in the wort to produce sour-tasting lactic acid, resulting in a beer with sharp and tart flavors. The final product, which takes around a month to brew, has an alcohol content of about 3.5 percent.”

Lactobacillus paracasei L26 was documented as having immune-boosting properties in mice — though this has yet to be confirmed in humans. They’ve already taken out a patent for the recipe to sell it commercially.

Words to Learn 相关词汇

【病原体】bìngyuántǐ pathogen a specific causative agent (such as a bacterium or virus) of disease